November 08, 2018

Real Crime - Such an Inconvenience

On all those well-done television shows like "FBI," crime is riveting. There's the fun of struggling to connect the dots about the identity of the bad guy or girl.

But, in real life, crime is totally an inconvenience.

Yesterday, I was heading out to run must-do errands. There I was on the driveway leading from the 600-unit residential complex - Hillbrook Apartments - to South Raccoon Road. I didn't get too far.

A whole bunch of my neighbors' cars were stopped on that driveway. Way up ahead a police car was positioned horizontally to block passage. I flashed a look at the back exit. A police car was also blocking that.

Long story short, we were in a lock-down. Something was going on in one of the apartments. The whole complex became a crime scene.

No one knew how long we were going to be detained. A man had to pick his children up from school. Several other neighbors had to go to work.

A number of people did a U-turn and headed back to their apartments. The more optimistic, including myself, just stayed there.

It wasn't fun to speculate what might be going down. Of course, we all thought: a shooting. Later I checked with the office and it wasn't that.

Eventually, the police finished up. What had been a crime scene returned to normal use.

Just before we got the all-clear a neighbor had our full attention with a story of how he endured a 12-hour lock-down in Texas. A shooter had barricaded himself in his girlfriend's apartment. Police didn't know that she and her mother were already dead so they kept negotiating. No one could leave or enter the complex.

At least for a few more days he will be able to tell that story. Now that a lock-down has become a reality we are all ears for all the possible scenarios.

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